CORPUS CHRISTI - Texas led the charge for Hispanic civil rights after World War II, said the producer of an upcoming PBS documentary profiling the fight for a wake for a local Hispanic veteran.

You can preview the film "The Longoria Affair," and ask questions of its producer John Valadez at 7 p.m. Monday in Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi's Performing Arts Center.

Valadez's work, which he called inspiring, profiles the fight against discrimination Felix Longoria's family had in Three Rivers after the Army private was killed in World War II in 1945. Corpus Christi physician Dr. Hector P. Garcia and his American GI Forum were at the fight's forefront.

The about one-hour film airs at 9:30 p.m. Nov. 9 on KEDT in the PBS series "Independent Lens."

Longoria's family tried to have a wake in his hometown in 1949 when his body was returned to the U.S., but a funeral home refused because he was Hispanic. The controversy reverberated from South Texas to Washington, D.C. when Garcia and the recently formed American GI Forum contacted politicians, including then Sen. Lyndon B. Johnson, and protested. Longoria eventually was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

About eight million nationally will see the film, Valadez said. The free screening Monday is one of about 15 in Texas. The screenings will continue through six states in about 40 cities, he said.

The Longoria incident launched Garcia into the national spotlight as a civil rights activist, said A&M-Corpus Christi Department of History Chairman Patrick Carroll. The documentary is based on Carroll's book "Felix Longoria's Wake," one of five books written in part from research of Garcia's papers donated in 1986 to the university.

"The documentary has a huge significance for the growth of our depository of Dr. Garcia's papers," Carroll said.

The university's role in the production and screening of the documentary honors the Hispanic community and the entire Coastal Bend community, he said.

The film should remind viewers that the fight against discrimination isn't finished, said Cecilia Garcia Akers, Garcia's daughter, who has seen the film twice.

"Felix Longoria was not the only Hispanic not allowed to be buried, and we have to remember them all," she said. "This film prompts our awareness of that, and the racism challenges we still face as a society."